Screencasts

Screencasts are video recordings of a computer screen, usually with accompanying narration. They can be a useful tool in documenting or publicizing software features, or can be used to analyze performance by watching frame-by-frame.

Desktop

Mac OS X

• QuickTime Player includes a "record screencast" feature. This can record an entire screen or a rectangular portion, and can record audio along with it. You'll have to convert to .ogv or .webm to upload.

Linux

• recordmydesktop - a simple tool that allows for easy screen capturing
• insert tools here

Windows

• insert tools here

Mobile

iOS

The iPhone Simulator in XCode can be used in combination with standard screencasting tools on Mac OS X; this runs very smoothly and will give a good frame rate, and works in both portrait and landscape orientations. However this does not allow you to use the device camera to take photos, or to test workflows with third-party apps.

Android

The emulator in the Android SDK may be recorded with desktop screencasting software, but performance is notoriously bad. This also doesn't make it easy to show interaction with other apps, which may not be installed in the emulator.

Android Screen Monitor tool uses the Android USB debugging interface to take continuous screenshots from a real device and mirror them to your computer's screen. You can then use screen sharing or screencasting software to record. This can have a very slow refresh rate, but the actual software runs at full speed and you can demo apps running on a real device.

HDMI capture

brion (talk) has had some luck using a Blackmagic Intensity Extreme HDMI video capture widget attached via Thunderbolt to his MacBook Pro.

Once video is captured to a QuickTime file you can convert to .ogv or .webm and upload!

This widget is fairly picky, and the capture utility requires you to know what HDTV resolution your data's at to capture correctly. Note in particular that it does not support 1080p60, which seems to be a problem with some devices.

Devices known to work:

OS	Device	Adaptor	Resolution	Sample	Notes
iOS	iPod Touch 5th-gen	Lightning->HDMI	720p60		Downscaled from 1136x640, with black borders. Portrait ok.
	iPad Mini	Lightning->HDMI	720p60		Downscaled from 1024x768, with black borders. Portrait ok.
	iPad 3rd-gen	30-pin->HDMI	1080p30		Downscaled from 2048x1536, with black borders. Portrait ok.
Android	Galaxy Nexus	Micro-USB->HDMI	720p60		Native 1280x720 resolution. Display is forced to landscape. No borders.
	Galaxy Tab 10.1	Proprietary->HDMI	720p60		Downscaled from 1280x800. Display is forced to landscape. Black bars at sides. Must be charging.
BlackBerry 10/QNX	BlackBerry PlayBook	Micro-HDMI->HDMI	720p60		Upscaled from 1024x600. Display is forced to landscape. No borders.
	Dev Alpha B	Micro-HDMI->HDMI	720p60		Downscaled from 1280x768. Black bars at sides. Portrait ok.
Windows 8/RT	Samsung 700T	Micro-HDMI->HDMI	1080i59.94		Upscaled from 1366x768. Display is forced to landscape. No borders.
	Surface RT	Micro-HDMI->HDMI	1080p30		Upscaled from 1366x768. Display is forced to landscape. No borders.

Devices known not to work:

OS	Device	Adaptor	Resolution	Notes
Android	Nexus 4	SlimPort micro-USB->HDMI	n/a	Can't get a signal. Likely it's outputting 1080p60 which the capture widget doesn't support.
	Nexus 7	n/a	n/a	No HDMI output available.
	Nexus 10	Micro-HDMI->HDMI	n/a	Can't get a signal. Likely it's outputting 1080p60 which the capture widget doesn't support.
	Kindle Fire 1st-gen	n/a	n/a	No HDMI output available.